Cecidomyiidae

Cecidomyiidae is a family of flies known as gall midges or gall gnats. As the name implies, the larvae of most gall midges feed within plant tissue, creating abnormal plant growths called galls. Cecidomyiidae are very fragile small insects usually only 2–3 mm (0.079–0.118 in) in length; many are less than 1 mm (0.039 in) long. They are characterised by hairy wings, unusual in the order Diptera, and have long antennae. Some Cecidomyiids are also known for the strange phenomenon of paedogenesis in which the larval stage reproduces without maturing first. In some species, the daughter larvae consume the mother, while in others, reproduction occurs later on in the egg or pupa.

Cecidomyiidae

Alvesgaspar · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
gall midgePBDB
Sits inside
SciaroideaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 143 million years on record.

The record covers at least 143.1 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 149.2 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 1 of 213 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 11 of 213 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 23 of 213 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 213 occurrencesEocene — about 156 of 213 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 2 of 213 occurrencesMiocene — about 17 of 213 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 213 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 213 occurrences152–147 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences147–142 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences137–132 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences132–127 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences127–122 Mya — about 6 occurrences122–117 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences117–112 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences112–107 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences107–101 Mya — about 2 occurrences101–96 Mya — about 2 occurrences96–91 Mya — about 1 occurrence86–81 Mya — about 12 occurrences81–76 Mya — about 4 occurrences76–71 Mya — about 3 occurrences71–66 Mya — about 2 occurrences61–56 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences56–51 Mya — about 5 occurrences51–46 Mya — about 5 occurrences46–41 Mya — about 2 occurrences41–36 Mya — about 83 occurrences36–30 Mya — about 61 occurrences30–25 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences25–20 Mya — about 5 occurrences20–15 Mya — about 10 occurrences15–10 Mya — about 1 occurrence10–5.1 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences5.1–0 Mya — about 3 occurrences143.1 Mya11.7 ka152 Mya0 Mya

213 occurrences of Cecidomyiidae on record, most of them in the Eocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

213 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

17 formations

Kheta — 71.31°N, 99.56°EKheta — 72.03°N, 101.33°EArgiles d'lignite du Soissonnais — 49.33°N, 2.66°EForemost — 49.83°N, 111.70°WFlorissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°WGreen River — 39.00°N, 108.00°WEscucha — 42.64°N, 2.72°WJohn Day — 44.13°N, 120.27°WGlushkovo — 51.92°N, 117.62°EUpper Freshwater-Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°EJijuntun — 41.84°N, 123.90°ENaibuchi — 47.44°N, 142.76°EDunstan — 45.48°S, 169.31°ELas Penosas — 43.31°N, 4.45°WRajdanda — 23.42°N, 84.13°EBattle — 49.24°N, 105.21°WHarudi — 23.72°N, 68.84°EHetaoyuan — 32.69°N, 112.79°E

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The named rock units Cecidomyiidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 175 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cecidomyiidae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Cecidomyiidae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

3,595 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 58 sites for Cecidomyiidae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

59 references

Each of the 213 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 47 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Cecidomyiidae

Credit
Alvesgaspar
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Cecidomyiidae was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itSciaroidea through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Newman 1834